Fantômes en croisière

Cosmo TOPPER TAKES A TRIP--with ghostly Marion Kerby and dead dog Atlas--to the French Riviera in hopes of winning back the estranged Mrs. Topper.

Hal Roach Studios presents more of the adventures of Topper in this follow-up to their previous comedy success. Many of the comic situations are highly reminiscent of the first film, but they are still funny and enough new material has been added to engage and hold the viewer's attention.

Roland Young & Billie Burke return as the Toppers and they are still a delight--Mr. Young owlish & serious in the silliest of situations and Miss Burke forever sweetly vague and befuddled. Gorgeous Constance Bennett, as ghostess Marion, remains free-spirited in her (unwelcome) attempts to help Cosmo out of his latest pickle. Somber Alan Mowbray is also back--and in top form--as the Toppers' devout butler.

Some new costars are on hand to help liven things up: Verree Teasdale plays Mrs. Topper's catty friend; Franklin Pangborn is the oleaginous manager of the Hotel St. Pierre; and suave Alexander D'Arcy provides some laughs as a gigolo baron intent on acquiring Miss Burke's money.

Movie mavens will recognize George Davis as a temperamental porter and Paul Porcasi as a suspicious casino manager, both uncredited. Atlas is played by that remarkable canine thespian, Asta. Cary Grant appears only in footage lifted from the first film.

A couple of scenes in particular are worth waiting for--the first when Topper, with invisible ghostly help, breaks the bank at the French casino's roulette wheel; the second comes when D'Arcy is subjected to humiliating indignities on the beach, courtesy of Miss Bennett and Asta.

This was the second of a 3-film series, coming after TOPPER (1937) and followed by TOPPER RETURNS (1941).

This film starts in court, with the divorce proceedings between Cosmo Topper and his wife. A flashback explains how the events of the original film, Le couple invisible (1937), supposedly caused this. However, the real reason (which does not get sufficiently clear until much later) is that Mrs. Topper's lawyer is trying to manipulate her into marrying a French fortune hunter. It appears that the events of the previous film just gave the crooked lawyer an opening that she could exploit.

The original film was based on a novel by Thorne Smith, and this sequel is based on the novel's sequel. The fun-loving dead Kerby couple who previously rescued Mr. Topper from boredom somehow get reactivated from heaven as ghosts to correct the unfortunate side-effect of their good deed. Except that George Kerby (Cary Grant) didn't like the film's script, or wanted more money than was available, or just had something better to do with his time, and so wasn't available. So unlike in the novel, in the film Marion Kerby (Constance Bennett) returns alone. Which comes across as odd because unlike in the novel, the film doesn't portray an actual romance between Marion Kerby and Cosmo Topper, choosing to depict the Kerby marriage as totally harmonious.

For added variety in the invisibility-based slapstick scenes, Marion finds herself a cute dog ghost as a sidekick. Unfortunately, the dog is never really used properly. Like the original film, this sequel could no doubt have profited a lot from breaking the prejudice of the early sound film era and hiring a slapstick expert rooted in the silent film era as an adviser. But they clearly didn't, and so the physical comedy, which should have been the strongest point, again comes across as having the handbrake on. Of course this was true already in the original film.

The original film somehow managed to be above average through a consistently high quality of script and acting. This and Cary Grant seem to be the second most important things missing in this sequel.

At least this is a proper sequel, unlike the second sequel, La dernière enquête de Mr. Topper (1941), which just uses the Toppers for an unrelated though similar ghost story script set in a horror house.

It recycles considerable footage from the first Topper film as background information. I guess that's a way of getting Cary Grant in there, even though he didn't shoot any new scenes for Topper Takes a Trip. (I bet they used his face in the advertising, too. If I had paid money to see this film, thinking Cary Grant was in it, I would have felt quite disappointed!) Constance Bennett stars as the ghost of Mrs. Kerby. She had some amusing moments, but I personally think she lacked the sparkle and sass of Joan Blondell, who starred in Topper Returns (my favorite of the three entries). The only scene at which I laughed out loud was that of the fortune-seeker on the beach, trying to woo Mrs. Topper while the ghost of Mrs. Kerby thwarts him with unseen hands at every turn. She strips his trunks off him while he's lying under the sand, then torments him with a giant beach ball that inexplicably keeps rolling over him while Mrs. Topper squeaks with alarm. So yes, that was funny, but if I had to choose one of the Topper films never to see again, it would be this one. Billie Burke, as usual, is a scene-stealer, but Alan Mowbray also made a worthy contribution here as the butler Wilkins.

This may be an odd suggestion, but I think this film actually benefited from the absence of Cary Grant. Now I love Cary Grant, but in the original Topper, he is conspicuous by his absence from much of the action, and it is a distraction: after all, he was supposed to be the star. Here, however, we get to focus exclusively on the wonderful Roland Young and the drop-dead gorgeous Constance Bennett.

Young is quite frankly great as the bumbling and often mumbling Cosmo Topper. He is so good at pretending to be pulled, pushed and twisted around by the invisible Mrs. Kirby that you really completely believe unseen forces are constantly roughing him up. And he so thoroughly throws himself into dancing by himself, kicking his feet around in a jig, and kicking at invisible dogs, that it is a real joy.

Have I mentioned that Constance Bennett is gorgeous? How many marriages on the set must have been broken up by her walking around in a bathing suit for a good portion of the film? Billie Burke was also much more interesting here than in the original. The writers surely delighted in giving her so many inane and nonsensical lines, which she, in her well-meaning but confusing daffiness, plays to perfection.

Finally, Franklin Panghorn has a lovely and meaty role as a manager of a French hotel; but his French accent has to be one of the worst ever. Luckily the film is filled with upset, screaming Frenchmen all always yelling at the same time.

I don't think everyone will agree with me, but I found "Topper Takes a Trip" to be at least as enjoyable as the original (except for the long introduction with its extensive borrowing from the original). Highly recommended.

"Topper Takes A Trip" is a charming, airy, lyrical fantasy comedy. No one ever made a fantasy comedy like this. The playing of all actors and the set design mix screwball comedy with fantasy elements, making an appealing, sexy, subtly witty comedy that was the best sophisticated comedy feature ever to come out of the Hal Roach Studios.

The cast is a dream. Although all three actors' characters do not appear to each other, the chemistry between Roland Young, Constance Bennett, and Billie Burke is a joy to watch. The musical score by Marvin Hatley not only complements the film beautifully, it features pieces that sound more from the 1960's than 1939. A remarkable score that deserves major recognition by film scholars, students, and buffs.

Roland Young and Billie Burke made several films together for different studios however it was in this film and in Selznick's "The Young In Heart" that showed them at their absolute best as a team. They also deserver greater critical recognition for their work.

The camerawork and set design evoke a polish and sheen common to '30's romantic comedies. A handsome look that stimulates suspending disbelief for a fantasy film. "Topper Takes A Trip" is, undeniably, the best of the three Topper films produced by Hal Roach.